Friday Five: Thailand bans plastic waste, Biden bans offshore drilling, big funding rounds for mining and CDR, 96% of new US power was carbon-free in 2024
The first good news of the year and we want your best takes of what is coming in 2025
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Hey there 👋
Skander here.
Happy (belated) New Year!
In case you didn’t have a chance yet: our 160 slide Climate Recap 2024 is diving into the big questions of the last and this year:
🌍 What’s the impact of climate change? The costs, the consequences, and the urgency we’re facing.
📊 What are the big narratives? From AI’s energy footprint to China’s dominance and the climate tech funding ice age.
🔮 What’s coming in 2025? Emerging trends, political roadblocks, and the next big opportunities.
Dive deeper here:
Downloadable (and sharable version) also here on Linkedin. Tell your colleagues, friends, family, cat - sharing is as always appreciated.
🚀 We’re following this up with 50 predictions for 2025.
Many of our friends, from Breakthrough to Intercalation and more, have already shared theirs. If you want to join them, send us a short prediction (1-3 lines) to [email protected]. We’d love to hear your takes!
We’ve also got big plans for the year ahead:
- More Climate Drift accelerator & more for our community
- Open fireside chats with leading builders in batteries, FOAK, and more.
- Podcasts (maybe even two!)
- 2-3 secret projects that we are working on with drifties
For now, here are the five stories I found most important this week with some (needed) context.
🌊 Let’s dive in
The 4th cohort of our accelerator is starting mid February and applications are still open (and a few spots are left). We are already interviewing and selecting participants, so apply now and make an impact:
🚀 Apply today: Be part of the solution
Thailand bans imports of plastic waste to curb toxic pollution
Developing countries are tired of being the world’s dumping ground. Thailand’s move is another wake-up call to nations that have outsourced their waste problem for too long. This is not the first country that does it (most famously China), and won’t be the last.
If international treaties are failing, as we have seen last December with the UN plastic talks, this will be the next step and progress we make.
Biden permanently bans offshore drilling in 625 million acres of ocean, making a Trump reversal difficult
This move locks in a significant portion of the US coastal ecosystem, ensuring long-term protection against fossil fuel expansion. Hopefully a tangible step forward in securing energy transition momentum. It also reminds me of the chatter I heard over the last few months from DC on locking in transition momentum through allocated and wired IRA subsidies.
KoBold Metals backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos valued at $2.96bn
For a decent deep dive into AI supported mining check out:
For a great deep dive into the current sustainability of mining and ways out of the dilemma:
And as a general reminder:
Chart: 96 percent of new US power capacity was carbon-free in 2024
Renewables dominate the capacity scoreboard yet again. The US grid transition is picking up pace, but the challenge remains in integrating this new capacity effectively. Cue my favorite transmission queue deep dive here.
The 4th cohort of our accelerator is starting mid February and applications are still open (and a few spots are left). We are already interviewing and selecting participants, so apply now and make an impact:
🚀 Apply today: Be part of the solution